Archer Questions

[Emre Tufekci]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am in the process of purchasing a new Archer system and I wanted to get advice on a few topics from Archer owners and the veteran ops.

 

Background:

I am a steadicam Op/Owner that is 7 years young with the steadicam and 15 years in the business. I have had private tuition beginners and master classes from Paul Taylor. I have owned a Provid 2,a flyer and had a lot of experience with the clipper and Ultra.

 

I am looking to replace my system with a Archer and have read through the forum to make sure I was making the right choice. I will be getting the Ultra Vest,AB mount, bartech FF w/M1.

 

Questions:

 

1- How do you get the best dynamic balance when flying a Varicam or similar size camera since there is less lower mass? Do you use battries like the AB dionic 90 or Dionic 160? I have seen pix on peoples website where they add an additional counter weight on the bottom of the sled using the battery extension rods.

 

2-Do you think it's worth getting the flight case for the ultra vest? Or is the standard case rugged enough to handle the everyday operations.

 

3- I was think of adding (and should have already) a steadicam cart from filmtools.com with a mount and vest holder. Any other brands or alternatives you might suggest?

 

4- Any tools or widgets you think any Op should have with the archer to make life easier?

 

5-Anything like: Archer is great BUT ............................??????

 

Thank you in advance for your time and taking the time to respond in your very busy schedules.

 

Cheers,

Emre Tufekci

www.productionpit.com

Edited March 25, 2008 by Emre Tufekci

[Colin Donahue]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am in the process of purchasing a new Archer system and I wanted to get advice on a few topics from Archer owners and the veteran ops.

 

Background:

I am a steadicam Op/Owner that is 7 years young with the steadicam and 15 years in the business. I have had private tuition beginners and master classes from Paul Taylor. I have owned a Provid 2,a flyer and had a lot of experience with the clipper and Ultra.

 

I am looking to replace my system with a Archer and have read through the forum to make sure I was making the right choice. I will be getting the Ultra Vest,AB mount, bartech FF w/M1.

 

Questions:

 

1- How do you get the best dynamic balance when flying a Varicam or similar size camera since there is less lower mass? Do you use battries like the AB dionic 90 or Dionic 160? I have seen pix on peoples website where they add an additional counter weight on the bottom of the sled using the battery extension rods.

 

2-Do you think it's worth getting the flight case for the ultra vest? Or is the standard case rugged enough to handle the everyday operations.

 

3- I was think of adding (and should have already) a steadicam cart from filmtools.com with a mount and vest holder. Any other brands or alternatives you might suggest?

 

4- Any tools or widgets you think any Op should have with the archer to make life easier?

 

5-Anything like: Archer is great BUT ............................??????

 

Thank you in advance for your time and taking the time to respond in your very busy schedules.

 

Cheers,

Emre Tufekci

www.productionpit.com

 

Emre,

I have owned an Archer for almost three years. It has worked well with every video camera I have tried, Beta SP, Digibeta, XD, Varicam, as well as studio triax setups. As you have seen in other posts, it is not possible to dynamic balance a large camera without adding weight to the bottom. I have several custom weights that slip over the rods. I also have a AB plate that slides over the rods so I can use a Hytron 140 under the post. If you search Lars Erik's posts, he was using a very similar setup to mine and I think has pictures of what he did. He has since modified his system through a company called Hofmann of Sweden. He has posted several pictures.

If I use a Dionic 90 on the sled battery mount, then I add weight to the rods, or I use a dionic 90 on the sled and a hytron 140 under the post on my custom AB plate. I have not used Dionic 160's yet.

 

I travel a lot so I have a pelican case for that holds the arm and vest. I would get a case if I were you.

 

I do not have a special cart. I only know of the filmtools version.

 

One of widgets I had made was a battery plate off an old battery with a lemo connector running to the sled. It snaps on to the back of the camera and keeps the weight on top down so I don't have to add so much to the bottom. You can buy one of these from Anton Bauer, it is a called the SO XLR.

 

The Archer is great but.... The vest that came with it has very little padding and is quite rigid and uncomfortable. I am used to it now, and I have replaced the padding with thicker foam.

The base of the sled is fixed. You cannot move the monitor forward or back.... not the end of the world, but I sometimes wish I could move it in to make a smaller foot print in tight spaces.

In my opinion, the battery mount for the sled is in the wrong place. It is too far behind the post. Because the monitor is so light, there is never a reason to slide the battery out. I always use it pushed all the way in as close to the post as possible. Whenever I add weight, it is always under the post. This is where it needs to be to dynamic balance the rig. For my purposes and the cameras I use the battery adjustment is pretty useless.

Despite all this I think I made a good purchase. I am always able to DB the sled using the weights. I wanted an EFP but could not find one at the time. I considered the Clipper, but it was 10K more and did not seem worth the extra $$ for my needs.

Since seeing Lars Erik's posts, I have decided to order the Hofmann modification and am supposed to get it on Monday. I will let you know how it works.

Good luck,

Colin Donahue

[Jess Haas SOC]

The Archer is great but.... The vest that came with it has very little padding and is quite rigid and uncomfortable. I am used to it now, and I have replaced the padding with thicker foam.

I just wanted to point out that this is very much a personal thing and that one should try on the vests before hand if they get a chance. I know of a number of people that found the ultra 2 vest more comfortable than the archer vest so they upgraded to that. Personally I find the vest that comes with the archer much more comfortable than the ultra 2 vest. There is also the compact vest which may fit people with smaller frames better.

 

~Jess

[Emre Tufekci]

The Archer is great but.... The vest that came with it has very little padding and is quite rigid and uncomfortable. I am used to it now, and I have replaced the padding with thicker foam.

I just wanted to point out that this is very much a personal thing and that one should try on the vests before hand if they get a chance. I know of a number of people that found the ultra 2 vest more comfortable than the archer vest so they upgraded to that. Personally I find the vest that comes with the archer much more comfortable than the ultra 2 vest. There is also the compact vest which may fit people with smaller frames better.

 

~Jess

 

Thank you very much for your time and information.

 

Cheers,

Emre

[Kurt Warner]

Colin

 

Your comments on the Archer are "Spot ON". I couldn't agree more on each point. I'm very pleased with my Archer but you spell it out very clearly. If you only need 12v spend the extra 10k on a BFD, wireless video and /or a Klassen vest.

 

Travel Safe

[Ed Moore]

Hi Emre,

 

I've owned an Archer for the past six months. My review of it to interested crew members is usually "the arm is fantastic, but the sled is pretty basic". As other commenters have mentioned, you will frequently find yourself coming up with sometimes-bodgy solutions in order to DB larger cameras (I find anything Digi/HDCAM/Varicam sized and up needs weight added under the post).

 

Having said that, for the price of the Archer package I think it represents a pretty sound offering from Tiffen - it's nicely positioned in terms of 'features' between the Flyer and Clipper. If you need to be able to configure things quickly and efficiently I would save up for the Clipper or above. For example, I mostly shoot for my own production company and other DPs I know pretty well - if I was going properly freelance as a steadicam operator and turning up on sets with limited time and the need to make a good first impression, I wouldn't want to be cable-tying extra weight onto the battery rods.

 

The Hofmann mod (AT-AT) for the Archer looks excellent, though. However if you're buying for the first time, it's only another $5,000 or so on top of the Archer + Hofmann price to get the Clipper 2 package. You might prefer to spend that on a Bartech plus M one though.

 

I have had no problems with the fabric standard vest bag... but then my kit always travels in my own vehicle. If I had to freight it then obviously I would need a hard case.

 

Don't forget to budget for extras like low mode bracket, J bracket, hard mount and all the various power cables. (Archers are a good match for the RED camera so you might want to invest in the Steadicam > RED power cable, Tiffen code 802-0106 for about $250-300 - the RED is a little awkward on the Archer if you have to power the camera from batteries mounted to the camera itself, rather than your 'sled' power). I did a test day with the RED recently on my Archer - pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/offsetcarrier...57604263189795/ if you're interested. Towards the end.

 

All in all, you'll love it. Massive jump up from the Flyer!

 

Cheers,

 

Ed

Edited April 2, 2008 by Ed Moore